Sermon for Lord's Day November 13, 2022 Luke 19:46-47

Our Father, as I come before your throne, right now it is with the greatest of joy that I approach unto your throne, considering the words of those hymns that we sang together,

Lord, and to know that they echo the truth of the Psalms, that you are our rock, that you are our fortress,

Lord, that you are our high tower, Lord, that you are our shield and that you are our buckler.

You, Lord, are the strength and the joy of our heart, and for that I give you praise, honor, and glory today.

Lord, we thank you for the truth of your word. We ask, Lord, that you show us your holiness, your righteousness, your character, your truth in your word as we examine these two verses this morning, for it is in Jesus' name

I pray. Amen. Two verses.

I would say that this might be one of the shortest sermons that I'll ever preach, but every time that I say that, it never fails.

It ends up to be one of the longest. So, for your sake, I won't say that, but I did think that.

It's too late now. There's no turning back. If you want to put a header on your notes this morning, you can put what

I put on the header of my notes, The House of Prayer Turned Into a Den of Thieves. The House of Prayer Turned Into a

Den of Thieves, for this is what we see in the text. This text, as we mentioned in Sunday school to all the classes when we were going around with catechism questions, in these two verses, really what we're going to examine is the depths of the depravity of the sinful nature of those who were supposed to be the priests of the living

God, and as well, by way of application, I hope that we can all understand and apply this rightly to our lives in understanding that there are none of us above any sin.

But as we examine this, we see the depravity of the sin of the priests of God, and we see the holy, righteous indignation of Jesus as he physically drives them from the temple.

So we're going to examine a few of these things as we look at this text. Last week, we read and what we saw in the text last week was the great love that our

Savior has for his people. Remember, as he approaches Jerusalem, he weeps, he wails, he bemoans the tragedy that is going to be coming upon them, and in specific, what we saw last week was that God's love is both judicious and compassionate.

So when I say judicious, what I'm speaking of is the fact that God righteously judges all men.

There is none that will be unjudged. There is no sin that happens, whether in darkness or in the light, that each and every individual human being will give account of one day.

So Jesus, both rightly and appropriately, meets out justice to the deserving, and what is amazing is that he shows mercy on those whom he will.

Now, many throughout history have argued that it is unfair of God to sovereignly predestine to elect, to call, to justify, to sanctify, and to one day glorify those whom he himself has chosen to set his love on.

Many folks to this day will argue that a man should and does have a say -so in salvation, but when we look at the

Bible from front to back, we can clearly see that if a man is left to himself to choose what is right, that man will always choose sin.

This is the doctrine of original sin, right? Every single one of us, adult and child, went through this in class today with the catechism.

Now, Matt Slick of Christian Apologetics Research, he gives a very good definition of the two terms

I'm going to put out to you today, Pelagianism and Semipelagianism. Pelagianism and Semipelagianism, these are early heresies that came up through the early church, and what they are are theological perspectives that relate to the nature of man.

In simple terminology, Pelagius taught that man is not inherently evil, but what do the scriptures say?

The scripture says that we are born in sin, that we are shaped in iniquity, right? So, as Matt Slick lays it out, he says

Pelagianism is a heresy, it's a false teaching, and it is the teaching by a 5th century monk named

Pelagius who taught that man's nature was not affected by the fall of Adam and that all people are still free to equally choose between right and wrong.

So, we see here why this is considered heresy in the early church and why it should still be considered heresy in the church today, because the scriptures teach us plainly and the scriptures teach us clearly that because of Adam and Eve's sin, because of his federal headship representation of all humanity, that we're all born in sin and we're all shaped in iniquity.

Matt Slick goes on to say, when Adam sinned, his offspring did not inherit the sinful nature according to Pelagius.

Pelagianism denies the doctrine of original sin and also denies that people are sinners by nature.

It states that people become guilty of sin only when they choose sin or only when they act upon sin, and so this heresy was officially condemned by the church at the

Council of Ephesus in AD 431. Now, some of you are saying you're putting theological facts to us,

Pastor, but do you have scripture to back that up? I'm glad that you asked the question. I do.

If you turn to the book of Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 3 verse 19, the

Apostle Paul spends the great first portion of this letter to the Romans establishing the truth of the fact based upon the scripture itself, based upon the

Old Testament scriptures, that it doesn't matter if you're Jewish or if you're Gentile, that we're all sinners.

It does not matter. So Paul said this in verse 19 of Romans chapter 3.

He said, what then? Are we Jews better off? And he says, no, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both

Jews and Greeks, are under sin as it is written. None is righteous.

No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.

All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

And he goes on. He says, their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

They are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and mercy and the way of peace they have not known.

And in closing there, he says, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

I can almost imagine, if you could imagine for just a moment, as Paul finishes this list of those who are truly sinful, in our day and time, maybe looking around.

Husbands, you may be looking at glancing over at your wife. Wives, you may be glancing over at your husband.

Mothers and fathers, you may be thinking about your kids and saying, he's talking about you right there.

But he's talking about us every one. This is the condition of mankind as it has been from the beginning and as it is to this very day.

In the words of Puritan Ezekiel Culverwell, he said this, there is no sin whereof every man has not the seed in himself, which without the

Lord's mercy would in time break out. And by that, what he was saying was this, there is no sin that we are above.

We need never assume that because we sin differently than other people, that we're better than him.

You're better at certain sins than I'm better at. And I'm better at certain sins than you are good at.

But we are all sinners. And we are sinners before a holy and a righteous

God. Now, some in the world, even some in the church world, sadly today, would say that this is an extreme view of sin that I'm preaching.

It's an extreme view of sin that I'm proclaiming to you today. And I would say this, that those who would argue, again, with this biblical line of reasoning, you may yourself need to examine the biblical truth of what the

Bible says about sin. And that sin, as the apostle Paul uses in another place in Romans, the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

Sin is not beautiful. It would be a lie for me, however, to say to you that there's not joy in sin because the

Bible will tell you there is pleasure in sin for a season. But know this, its end will only bring death.

So, and if you still come to the conclusion after studying this out in the scriptures, the doctrine of sin, you still come to the conclusion that maybe sin isn't as bad as that preacher's letting on, or it's not as bad as what some folks say, then my friend,

I would challenge you today to examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.

For Jesus Christ died for our sins, to be a propitiation for our sins.

He died in our place. When we were unlovable, he loved us.

Another of the old Puritan preachers in his work called Godly Man's Ark, an old preacher named

Edmund Calamey. Edmund Calamey was one of the preachers that in the, I think it was the mid to late 1600s,

I couldn't be wrong on my date, but he was part of what was called the Great Ejection, where ministers, preachers of the gospel were actually kicked out of the church and not allowed to proclaim the gospel because they stood on the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

But Edmund Calamey in his work called Godly Man's Ark said this. He said, look upon sin as the greatest of evils.

Look upon sin as the greatest of evils, greater than poverty, greater than imprisonment, greater than banishment, greater than death itself.

He said, choose the greatest affliction rather than commit the least sin. He said, if hell were on one side and sin on the other, choose rather to go to hell than to sin against God.

For sin, he says, is a greater evil than hell because it is the cause of hell and it's more opposite to God than hell is.

This is how the Puritans viewed sin. This is a good way for us to approach the doctrine of sin.

It is good for us to consider just how heinous sin is and how holy

God is. And we're doing all this as the foundation work for us to understand why

Jesus did what he did. So a right and a good biblical understanding of sin is necessary for us today as we look at this passage.

And really what we do is we see two things. We see what Jesus does and we see why

Jesus did what he did. We see what Jesus does and why Jesus did what he did.

So we see Jesus enter the temple, right? And he throws out those buying and selling in the temple.

So what was going on in the temple? This is maybe one of the first questions.

If you've got other information you've already put down, great. But first question here, what was going on in the temple?

In a word, I'll use scare quotes here, business.

But not the sort of business that attends to the good of the soul, but rather business that is good for the pocketbook, particularly good for the pocketbooks of the priests and the

Romans for whose pockets they themselves were in. The priests and the

Romans were making money hand over fist in the quote unquote name of God.

This is why there is such a strong, that we take such a strong stance against false teachers.

This is why we take offense when we see men and women alike proclaiming and teaching what they are calling the word of God for greedy and sordid gain.

It is sinful and it is the reason for which Jesus drove them out of the temple.

So it was a lucrative business, meaning it was good. And I'm going to call this business the business of the shakedown.

The shakedown. They were in the business of shaking down those who were simply looking for atonement of their sins.

They were taking advantage of the innocent when they came to the holy place, when they came to the temple.

They were shaking them down. Sadly, this same type of shakedown continued throughout the years.

By who? By the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church performed the same kind of shakedown that these unholy priests and Romans committed in the temple.

They continued it in the centuries to come. And they did this by the way of what's called selling of indulgences.

Just imagine, I mean literally, this is not a rhetorical, just imagine, I literally want you to think about this for a moment.

Imagine myself, sir, or Kenny gets up, stands behind this pulpit and we look you dead in the eye and we say to you,

I have good news for you today. If you have family members that have died and you don't think that they have gone to heaven, if you will just give the church $25, we're going to give you a letter.

And on that letter, this is going to state that your loved one will not have to go to hell.

We'll be able to get out of hell. We'll be able to get out of purgatory. Imagine me saying this to you.

And then they will forever be in the presence of God if you will just give the church $25 and we'll give you this piece of paper as an indulgence in exchange.

Some of you are thinking that's crazy, but that is exactly what the

Roman church was teaching. And that is exactly the teaching of false teachers today.

Send me your money and God will bless you. You will never be blessed outside of Jesus Christ.

You will never be righteous outside of Jesus Christ and being righteousness in Jesus, being righteous in Jesus Christ is still not your own.

It's still Jesus righteousness. It's his alien righteousness to us.

So during the middle century, during those dark ages, when the

Roman Catholics were selling indulgences, we celebrated what? Reformation day on October 31st, right?

These indulgences is what Martin Luther took offense to with the church.

And so when he went to the church door at Mittenberg, he posted on the bulletin board. He didn't go up as many things.

He didn't go up, stomped up to the door, look around at everybody and say, come on, you bring it.

I got you. It was as simple as him walking up to the door, posting his 95,

I don't really like to use the word thesis, is this right to say in public that it sounds too much like feces?

Right? His 95 statements and what they were, 95 statements against the

Roman Catholic church's use of papal indulgences.

And so in just some of those statements, these 95 statements that he put out, he said this, he said, number 21, he said, those indulgence preachers are in error who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by papal indulgences.

Just a plain statement, right? He goes on to say, if remission of all penalties whatsoever could be granted to anyone at all, certainly it would be granted only to the most perfect and that is to very few.

And he said, for this reason, most people are necessarily deceived by the indiscriminate and high sounding promise of release from penalty.

He simply wanted to communicate that what the Roman Catholic church was propagating in the sale of indulgences was evil and sinful, and it would not have any, give them any eternal benefit in the long run.

He went on to say this, those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned together with their teachers.

This is a sad fact. This is a sad reality. This is why we must demand right theology.

This is why you as a congregation must insist upon sound doctrine being proclaimed in the classroom and in the pulpit.

This is why you must be on guard. He goes on to say this, men must especially be on guard against those who say that the

Pope's pardons are the inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to him.

He goes on, they who teach that contrition is not necessary on the part of those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessional privileges, those people preach unchristian doctrine.

Martin Luther was not known for being smooth and kind in his speech. He was very, very bold, very plain, a lot of times very rude.

But my goodness, what a way that is put, unchristian doctrine. And that is exactly what we see even in our day, unchristian doctrine being proclaimed from pulpits on Sunday mornings here in this, probably in this city today, unchristian doctrine proclaimed from pulpits and people love it.

All they do is say, give me more, give me more, give me more. But what we ought to be seeking is more of Christ, more of the righteousness and holiness of God that is found in the word of the living

God. Last couple of, just a couple more of his statements that he made.

He said any true Christian, whether living or dead, it's a reminder here, this is true. Any true

Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church.

And this is granted him by God, even without indulgence letters. You do not need the affirmation of men to have assurance of salvation today.

You can be assured of salvation because if your heart has been made new, if you have been passed from death unto life, if you have the forgiveness of sins, then my friends, it does not matter how many people try to persuade you against that.

If God has done the work of regeneration in you, you will know it. And it is undeniable.

Last of all, he said this in number 76 and 79 of his 95 statements. He said, we say on the contrary that papal indulgences cannot remove the very least of venial sins as far as guilt is concerned.

And to say that the cross emblazoned with a papal coat of arms and set up by the indulgence preachers is equal in worth to the cross of Christ is blasphemy.

And by that you can see why he was so loved by the Roman Catholic Church. But even in the 21st century, we still see the shakedown.

We still see the fleecing of the saints of God by those hucksters and by those charlatans that parade themselves around like they are mighty men and like they are mighty women of God.

Who are these false teachers in our day who preach for greedy gain? Just to name a few, Stephen Furtick, his mentor

T .D. Jakes, Andrew Wommack, Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, Todd White, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland.

That's Kenny and Will's favorite guy. If you ever get a meme from Will, I guarantee you one out of two might be

Kenneth Copeland. Just to name a few, there's a long, long list of folks who are popular beyond belief and who have been listened to for years, but their doctrine is unchristian doctrine.

So again, this is still goes to why Jesus did what he did, because these were supposed to be priests of God serving in the temple.

These were supposed to be men who led holy lives, who were given to the law of God, who followed and abided by the law of God.

But they were sellouts. They were charlatans and they were hucksters who trampled underfoot the blood of the

Lamb of God, who is now in their midst. This is why in the

New Testament, for church oversight, for elders and for deacons, the standard is given in Titus chapter 1.

Notice this. In Titus chapter 1, verse 7 through 11, concerning overseers, bishops, elders, deacons, so on.

For an overseer is God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant.

He must not be quick -tempered or drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught in the text of Scripture itself, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

For there are many who are insubordinate, many empty talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision party.

They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

The church of the living God should always and ever be vigilant about maintaining sound doctrine coming from their pulpits.

This is why churches look. I may die today.

Sir may die today. Kitty may die today. Boy, this was an encouraging message.

But if we die, if we're gone, all of a sudden something happens. Listen. And just anybody comes in here, and there have been those.

There have been those who have come in and out of the church in the past two years. They're here for a few weeks.

Guess what? They've just gotten out of college. They're looking for a church to come and to take over.

Listen, the church is not up for takeover. My position, listen, is not up for takeover.

This is God given. This is God appointed. And it's up to you, the congregation, to demand sound doctrine.

And if you don't hear sound doctrine, then tell the people to move on.

If you hear us teaching falsely, rebuke us. Listen, rebuke us sharply and firmly and lovingly, by the way.

And then, because we're children of God, we'll repent. We'll get right with God.

We'll get right with one another, and we can move on. But you must be vigilant as a congregation.

Do not settle for anything other than the Word of God. So we see these, and most of those characteristics that Paul gave to Titus and to Timothy as well, are character qualifications.

They're character qualifications. In his book, Pulpit Crimes, Dr. James White says this.

He says, the entire worldview permeating our culture is in rebellion against God's truth, even the way we think is sinful.

So it is hardly surprising that we kill our own young, that we rejoice in the perversion of God's law relating to sexuality, marriage, and ethics, and that we mock everything that is good and honorable and right.

Instead of looking to outward blessings, White says, instead of looking to outward blessings, the servant of God must look to growth and godliness in the flock, in the congregation.

We must look for the seriousness in living the Christian life, submitting to Christ, and to loving his words.

Brothers and sisters, the priests in Jesus' day, they should have been focused on intending to the holy things of God.

They should have been concerned about seeking good for God's people, but instead they were fixed on the satisfaction of their own greed.

They were fixed on the satisfaction of their own lust. They were fixed on the satisfaction of their own ambitions.

But the Bible tells us this, when pride comes, then comes the fall.

When pride comes, then comes the fall. And the scriptures also teach us that those who dig a pit will fall in that same pit.

So the truth is, there is no escaping the judgment of God. The judgment of God is just as certain as death, according to Hebrews 9, verse 27.

So this is what biblically grounded teaching and preaching ministry must be proclaiming.

We have but one message to declare to the world church, to our friends and to our enemies.

It's still the same message. And that, my brothers and sisters, is the message of the cross of Jesus Christ.

It is the message of self -denial. It is the message of hope to the lost.

One of the old hymns in the church hymnal says this, it imparts joy to hearts weary and burdened and worn, souls in need, it will lead out of the night into morn, labor still with a will true to the master remain.

Then at last trials are pressed, heaven's bright crown you shall gain. Tell it and sing it from day unto day while you are passing along.

Tell it to sinners who fall by the way, spread it in story and song. It is the message of Jesus to men sent from the

Savior above. Tell it and sing it again and again. Wonderful message of love.

The temple priests had one thing they had to do and they did not do that one thing.

They sought themselves instead of seeking the holiness and the righteousness of God.

Now in a sermon on the temple practices, so remember two verses, this is all we see here. He entered the temple.

He entered the temple and he began to drive them out and as he drove them out he said, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations but you have made it a den of thieves.

You have made it a den of robbers. To give us an idea of what went on, MacArthur in the sermon said this, the court of the

Gentiles had basically been turned into a business center. The business was selling animals needed for the sacrifices.

One Passover record indicates that 260 ,000 lambs were slain.

So you can just imagine how many animals would have been in the courtyard there and you also had to buy other necessities for offerings and sacrifices.

And then we have it, Jesus referred to it being made a den of thieves, a den of robbers in reference to the money changers.

All of this was basically called the Bazaar of Annas. Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests at this time.

The temple market or the Bazaar of Annas, temple market also called,

Annas and Caiaphas were again high priests. They ran the operation and they became filthy rich selling franchises to people who sold the animals and changed the money and sold the oil and the other things that were used.

They sold these franchises for very high prices, then skimmed off a huge percentage of the profit of the shop owners so that the court of the

Gentiles was jammed with these shops. So basically they set up, they made the temple, the courtyard, the court of the

Gentiles, basically like a little mini mall. A little mini mall where they could come in and so that people who travel, instead of being obedient to the word of God and bringing and picking the best out of their flocks and bringing it to offer it unto the

Lord their God, they traveled a lot and all they'd have to do was, because of the convenience of the matter, was just to go and buy their own sheep, buy their own lamb.

So going on, MacArthur said concerning an older commentator,

John Lightfoot, John Lightfoot wrote this. John Lightfoot writes, there was always a constant market in the temple.

One might ask, well, why don't they bring their own animals? Which was a good question,

Lightfoot remarks. They should, and they could choose the best one in their flock without spotting, without blemish.

But here was the catch. If you brought your own animal, it was risky because every animal that was sacrificed, get ready for this, had to pass a priestly inspection.

According to the Levitical priesthood, the Levitical law, the Old Testament, part of the first five books of the

Old Testament, there were standards that God had set up. And so even if they brought their own sheep, even if they brought their own sacrifice, it had to pass the

Levitical priest standard. It had to get that USDA stamp of approval if you'd had it.

But because the priests were shaking everybody down, they bypassed the law of God.

And they said, nope, that's not good enough. You need this.

Do you see the problem? Anytime, and in the Old Testament we see it, anytime the worship of God is changed from what we think it ought to be to what

God says it is, there are problems. He killed hundreds and thousands of people at one time,

God did, for changing the worship of God. Nadab and Abihu simply brought their own fire to burn the incense, but it was not acceptable because it was not what

God had established. And so these Levitical priests or these priests in the temple were saying, no, that's not good enough.

And so guess what had to happen next? What had to happen next was this. They had to go to one of the markets, get by one of the market sheep, but oh no, they're in the temple.

There's a special currency required in the temple. It was temple currency. And so in order to get temple currency, they had to go to the money changers to take the money that they brought and get it changed into temple currency.

And that was done many times at a 25 % charge, just so they could buy and sell in the temple.

And if that wasn't enough, there was a temple tax required by everybody that came.

So even if they didn't have to buy a sheep or goat, they still were required to pay the temple tax, and they were required to pay the temple tax in temple currency, which required them again to have to go to the money changers.

It was corruption from top to bottom. It was corruption.

It was sin. That is exactly right. So here, after having said all that,

I believe that now we have a crystal clear picture of what was going on.

Not 4K, I'm talking about 8K clarity here. Clear, unmistakable, the corruption that was going on.

And people will say, I just don't know why Jesus reacted the way that he did, because he's the

Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. That those sacrifices that had been made for 4 ,000 years, nearly 4 ,000 years up to that time, were representative images of what he was going to do.

And so he drives out the money changers. In one of the

Gospels, he actually did it twice. In one of the Gospels, we see it right as he entered into his ministry.

And here, again, at the end of his ministry, turning over the tables of the money changers, driving them out of the temple.

And the words that he says are so telling, because he says this, my house.

Here we go. It's not their house. It's not their temple. It's not their tabernacle.

It's his house. My house. And he begins to quote the prophet

Isaiah. My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you, as he's running them out of the temple, but you have made it a den of robbers.

You have made it a den of thieves. Now, one thing that, again, another thing that's universal, nobody likes to be told that they're in sin.

It is somewhat offensive, if we're honest with ourselves. It is somewhat offensive, but it is so needful for us to recognize that we are sinners before a holy and righteous

God. And it is so encouraging for us as children of God, those who have been born again by the grace of God, to realize that though our sin be great, as John Newton said, two things

I remember, I'm a great sinner and I have a great savior. Two things we must remember.

So, in closing, I want to encourage you to turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 6 as we close here.

2 Chronicles chapter 6. And as you're turning there,

I'll communicate the context. I encourage you to study it out to make sure I'm not telling you incorrectly.

King David desired to build a house for the Lord. The Lord refused him to be able to build his house, but he said, your offspring, your son's going to build my house, and that is

Solomon. And so Solomon provides everything necessary for the building of the house of God, for the temple of the

Lord. It's built, it gets constructed, and all

Israel gathers together in the temple. And then here in 2

Chronicles, just so that we read from the text itself, and by this, by the text itself, we see the depth and the importance of what

Jesus said when he said, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,

Jew and Gentile alike. In 2 Chronicles chapter 6, beginning in verse 12, the scripture says,

Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands.

Now, Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide, three cubits high, and he set it in the court of the tabernacle, and he stood on it.

Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands toward heaven, and this was his prayer.

Oh, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with your servant

David, my father, what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth and with your hand, you have fulfilled it to this day.

Do you see his view of God, right? High, holy. Now, therefore, oh,

Lord God of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, what you have promised him, saying that you shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel.

If only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.

Now, therefore, oh, Lord God of Israel, let your word be confirmed which you have spoken to your servant

David. Then he asked this question in his prayer, but will God indeed dwell with man on earth?

What a question, foreshadowing indeed, for yes, God did indeed dwell with man on earth, but he did not dwell in a tabernacle or a temple made with hands.

Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I've built.

So again, notice though the house was magnificent, though it was awesome, though it was majestic,

Solomon still recognized it's nothing compared to the glory of God. And he said, verse 19, yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, oh,

Lord, my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place and listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people,

Israel, when they pray toward this place and listen from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

If a man stands against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and he comes and he swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head and vindicating the righteousness, the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

And we see this going on in every single couple of verses. If your people,

Israel, are defeated before the enemy, because why? Because they have sinned against you and they turn and they acknowledge your name and pray and they plead with you in your house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people,

Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave them and to their fathers. And he gives scenario after scenario in his prayer of folks rebelling against the

Lord and yet drawing near unto the Lord. And it was all in the house of God.

This was what God had intended for his tabernacle, his temple to be, his dwelling place to be, a house of prayer so that man would recognize his sinful nature and would recognize the holiness of God and would turn from his sin and would turn to the

Savior and will believe in Jesus Christ and would be saved. I encourage you to read the remainder of that chapter, but in skipping down to verse 40, now, oh my

God, let your eyes be open and let your ears be attentive to the prayer of this place.

And now arise, oh Lord God, and go to your resting place.

You and the ark of your might, let the priests, oh Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.

Oh Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. Remember your steadfast love for David, your servant.

And as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices and the glory of the

Lord filled the temple. And the priest could not enter the temple or the house of the

Lord because the glory of the Lord filled that place.

Oh friends, two verses, 45 and 46, as he entered the temple, he drove them out and he proclaimed, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift today. Stand with us if you would this morning.